Chapter I. St. Thomas'Doctrine on the Increase of Charity and Meritorious Acts

If there is one subject that is especially important for the spiritual life, it is unquestionably the increase of charity. Being the greatest of all virtues, charity ought to inspire and animate all the others by making them direct their every act to God, loved more than ever and above all things. No one can be saved without this supernatural virtue, meant to grow in us daily all our life long.

To insure giving an orderly treatment of the subject, we shall follow the plan outlined in St. Thomas {Summa theologica), 1 considering first how and why charity can increase in us; secondly, whether every act of charity, no matter how imperfect, increases the virtue; thirdly, whether charity can go on increasing indefinitely; and fourthly, what perfection charity can achieve in diis life. In the following chapters we shall show how fervor falls away because of venial sin and grows strong through daily Communion.

Charity of any degree, however small, always loves God, the author of salvation, above all things, even self, and neigh-¹

3^6 THE LOVE OF GOD bor as self for love of God. Charity excludes no one Any e xclusion would mean a sin so grave as to destroy charity. ~~TJfanting that charity exFends to all, we next inquire in what way it may be said to grow. We can have no doubt that it can and must grow in our souls, for St. Paul tells the Ephesians: "But doing the truth in charity, we may in all things grow up in Him who is the head, even Christ." 2 And to the Philippians he writes: "And this I pray, that your charity may more and more abound." 3 And to the Thessalonians : "And may the Lord multiply you and make you abound in charity towards one another and towards all men: as we do also towards you, to confirm your hearts without blame, in holiness, before God and our Father." 4 The words of the angel in the Apocalypse add: "He that is just, let him be justified still: and he that is holy, let him be sanctified still." 6 Even in the Old Testament in the Book of Proverbs the same idea finds expression: "But the path of the just, as a shining light, goeth forwards and increaseth even to perfect day." 6 The Council of Trent T solemnly defined the truth found expressed in the Church's prayer, Da nobis fidei, spei et caritatis augmentum. "Increase our faith, our hope, our charity."

JTjieok^gJcdreasoning 8 ex plains this infa l lible teac hing by remindinguTthat fEe~Christian is called a travele r. aviator7 smaLiKUsjma kjng his w ay toward God a nd heaven. It iT not by steps of the b od y, by loca l motion, that we draw near"

THE INCREASE OF CHARITY 367 ja^God but by_a cts of inc reasingly perfect love, gressibus qmoris, stepsofjove, as St. Gregorypats it^S£e must conclude, thjmTth at in ihis-life. charity can always be increased;Jf not, the Christian would no longer be a traveler, he would have stop^eH^ ^s journey befj itt ^achingTio me^jn this life h e^ mu st push on along the road. It offers him nowhere to stop, forest, no placejocaUJlisJlomfi"-

The contrasting words found in St. Luke, "Woe to you that are filled: for you shall hunger," 9 and those recorded by St. Matthew, "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill," 10 remind us again that our home is not here. Home is where the heart is, and the heart is with its treasure, "If any man thirst, let him come to Me, and drink. . . . Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." 11

Not only beginners and proficients but even those who have already reached a higher degree of perfection should continue growing in charity. Further, the perfect outpace the less generous because the nearer they come to Goil the more He attracts diem, 12 just as falling bodies move faster and faster as theynear the earth owing to the increasing attraction it exercises over them. The progressive acceleration of the soul approaching God finds a most striking example in the Blessed Virgin Mary for she was unhampered by the slightest venial sin and continually drew nearer to God. In a lesser degree the spiritual progress of the saints obeys the same law j^evenwh^ weighed down by old age they understand and live the words

of the Psalmist: "Thy youth shall be re newed like the eag k' s ." 13 V ~

Since even the lowest degree of charity requires that we love God above all things and our neighbor as ourselves, ^withoiiL. any_«{C£ption A ,charity e vidently ca nnot acquire any greater extension. It can g r ow ; infhtensityjbecoming more and more __ deeply rooted in the will and more and more determined by increasingly generous actions to fly sin and to seek God.

If charity grew by addition, like a pile of golden coins, it I would multiply but not reall y increase 14 since it would not become more intense, multiplication belonging to the order of quantity not of quality, an entirely different thing. 15 Charity really increases in us through becoming more and more deeply rooted in the will by informing it and determining it more completely to supernatural goods and leading it farther and farther from evil. The scholar offers us a parallel here. Even if he sometimes fails to keep up to the minute on every new discovery in his particular science, his knowledge deepens, sharpens, and becomes more certain because, although he has long known the principles and conclusions of his science, his understanding of their relationship keeps growing and he grasps more fully, intimately, and simply the formal object of his study. So charity grows and deepens in us by cleaving more and more closely to God for His own sake and to our neighbor for the sake of God. Incidentally Thomistic teaching on this point explains the necessity for the passive purification of the spirit to rid the great virtues of every imperfection and bring

ls A second degree of charity added to the first would either be equal to it or greater than it. If it were equal, charity would simply be multiplied, not increased or intensified; if it were greater, then the first degree would become useless.

THE INCREASE OF CHARITY 369 into strong relief their formal object, divine truth and good- ness. 18

The next question to be considered is whether acts of charity themselves have the power to effect an increase of charity. ^Icjiarity were a virtue acquired fay repe ated acts, it would certainly increase in die same way. But charity is an infused v irtue, God-given at baptis m. Since charily is a participation in God's own life, the uncreatedlove uniting the txiree_chvme~ Persons, only God cah produce it in us7Slhce^nTy~ God can gjy£jt^)nly~ Hj^cgnjn crease if^T makj^usfirtEeTgifts. 1 ' The sainl^riusTbe saidoFall the infused vhttleTano'ThirgTffs of the Holy Ghost. "And he that ministereth seed to the sower, will both give you bread to eat, and will multiply your seed, and increase the growth of the fruits of your justice: that being enriched in all things, you may abound unto all simplicity, which worketh through us thanksgiving to God." 18 God indeed and God alone gives the increase, sanctifying and making saints.

Nevertheless, although our acts of charity cannot of themselves effect an increase of the virtue of charity, they do concur in its growth in two ways. Ejr^J:, they concur from a moral point of view by meriting a right to a reward. The just really merit an increase of charity by their supernatural good works, 19 as the Council of Trent defined. 20 While waiting for their heavenly reward, they receive from God a recompense in this life, die growth of divine love within them so that

16 The view St. John of the Cross takes, that the spiritual life matures from one age level to the next by progress in humility and the theological virtues, recommends itself as a better way to express this truth.

37° THE LOVE OF GOD they love God with greater strength and purity. 21 The quietists forgot that the more disinterested a soul becomes, the more it desires its reward — to love God more and more.

In the second place, our acts of charity physically dispose the will to receive an increase of the divine life or infused charity, just as, at the moment of conversion or justification, our acts of faith, hope, and contrition dispose us to receive sanctifying grace and charity. 22 Acts of charity in some way • higher faculties so that they are capable of holding more: or better, they lift our powers up to new heights and _ make them ready to climb still higher. 23 The infused virtues and the gifts of the Holy Ghost received with sanctifying grace _ J ' grow along with .Qxaj&sihce they form, as it were, one super-

Having seen that charity can increase in us and that it grows through the inpouring action of God and yet according to the measure of our merits and dispositions, we next ask whether charity grows with its every act, however imperfect. We know that a man of ten talents who acts as if he had but five talents acts imperfectly, because his action has leas intensity. i t han the virtue from which it proceeds. 25 The question, therefore, arises

25 The term "imperfect act" is used in this sense throughout the present discussion. "Retnissus" may also be translated as sluggish, slack, feeble, without intensity, not very generous.

THE INCREASE OF CHARITY 371 whether an imperfect action of this kind can increase the virtue of charity by an added talent or degree.

Theologians before and after St. Thomas have argued this difficult question. As usual, some adopt either one of two extreme opposing dieses, between which we find a third, keeping to the just mean and rising above the other two toward the heights of truth, St. Thomas' own thought, as we believe.

Some theologians, even some great theologians, 26 say that imperfect acts of charity do no r merit mndipnly or in justice a n increase of the virtue of charity . Others, like Suarez, 27 take the opposite view, holding that every act of charity, even when imperfect, merits in justice an increase of the virtue and obtains it immediately. ^ — _

St. Thomas seems to find the proper mean and the point of culmination when he says: "Every act of charity merits everlasting life, which, however, is not to be bestowed then and there, but at its proper time. In like manner every act of charity merits an increase of charity; yet this increase does not take place at once, but when we strive for that increase." 28 He adds: "Even w-hen an acquired virtue is being engendered, each act does not complete the formation of the virtue, but conduces toward that effect by disposing to it, while the last act, which is the most perfect and which acts in virtue of all those acts that preceded it, reduces the virtue into act, just as when many drops hollow out a stone." 29

St. Thomas demonstrates the truth of this doctrine as fol-

28 Outstandingly Durandus. Of. Salmanticenses, Cursus thiol, de caritate, de caritatis augmcnto, it. 19, disp. V, vi. *1 Suarez, De gratia, Bk. VIII, chap. 3- « Ila Hae, q.24, a. 6, ad ium. 28 Ibid., ad 2um.

lows. Every act of charity, even when imperfect, merits in justice an increase of charity because it fulfills all the conditions for condign merit. It is a supernatural act done by a just man, God's friend, for God's sake, and our Lord has promised a reward for every least act of charity, even a cup of water given in His name. Besides, the Council of Trent 30 has defined that by his own good works done through God's grace a just man truly merits an increase of grace. Now any act of charity, even if markedly inferior to the degree of charity from which it proceeds, is a good work, a supernatural act of love for God, of divine friendship. It has not all the perfection required for generous progress; it contains imperfection, something formally not good, but the act itself is not bad, not a venial sin, however slight; and, although less good than a more intense act of charity, it is still intrinsically good and meritorious.

St. Paul says: "He who soweth sparingly shall also reap sparingly." 31 He reaps something however. And if the hairs of our head are all numbered and on judgment day we must answer for every idle word of ours, the Lord also takes account of every smallest act of charity; they are all written in the book of life 32 and will receive their reward.

Besides, if we refuse to admit this conclusion, we get into serious difficulties. It would follow that imperfect acts performed by a great saint would not merit an increase of charity, whereas the generous, although inferior, acts of a beginner would merit it. Anyone with ten talents who acted as if he had but nine would not merit, while another of one talent who used it to the full would merit. It seems, therefore, certain that

82 Cf. St. Ambrose, De Spiritu Sancto, Bk. II.

THE INCREASE OF CHARITY 373 every act of charity, even if imperfect, merits an increase of the virtue.

However, we hold with St. Thomas that imperfect acts of charity do not immediately obtain the increase which they merit, 33 because 34 God confers more sanctifying grace and charity only when a man is ready, by his dispositions, to receive them, just as, at the moment of conversion or justification, sanctifying grace is given according to the convert's dispositions, the fervor of his contrition. 36

Speaking in the language of talents, certainly one who has ten talents but acts as if he had only two, is not yet disposed to receive another, for his action falls short of the virtue from which it proceeds. In this we can see a certain analogy between the natural and the supernatural; for a man with intelligence above the average who barely applies himself to his work, makes little progress in scientific studies while another, despite die fact that he is not so gifted, gains an excellent grasp of his subject because of his industry. In the natural order, too, friendship grows stronger only through increasing generosity; niggardly ways may keep it going but can never add to it. It seems, then, that we must conclude with St. Thomas that, although imperfect acts of charity are meritorious, they do not immediately obtain their merited increase of grace. 36

'"Suarez fails to appreciate this truth, maintaining that imperfect acts or charity (actus remissi) obtain immediately the increase of chanty which they merit.

8 ° The objection has been made that whoever receives Communion with the requisite disposirions, even if they are quite imperfect, immediately obtains some slight increase of grace and charity and that, therefore, whoever performs a very imperfect act of charity also obtains immediately the feeble increase of chanty merited. Evidently no such parity exists between the increase of grace produced by the sacraments ex opere operate and that which is merited outside the sacraments ex opcrc operantis. Cf. St. John of St. Thomas, the Carmelites of Salamanca, Gonet, and Billuart, Dc caritate, de caritatii augmento.

The question at once arises as to precisely when good men do receive the increase of charity merited by their imperfect acts. Some Thomists reply 37 that as soon as a man makes a fervent act of charity he thereby becomes disposed to receive the increase of grace due his imperfect past actions and so receives it. However, according to the same authorities, the increase of grace given him would be just as great without them. Other Thomists usually answer 38 that this amounts to saying that the meritorious but imperfect actions already done are really deprived of the increase of grace they merit; they have then no condign merit and by them die just cannot really be said to grow in charity, contrary to the Council of Trent's declaration 39 that the just man grows in grace and charity by good works.

Suppose a man with ten talents of charity lives for years as if he had only eight but, when dying, makes an act of charity of ten talents. Another man who is dying after having spent his whole life in mortal sin makes an identical act. Certainly the first man deserves a greater essential reward than the second. His good but imperfect acts seem to merit a special increase of grace, distinct from what is due to the fervent act following them. And what is true for him is true for all.

The question still remains, then, as to when the just will receive the special increase of charity due their imperfect but meritorious acts, so frequent in our lives. It would be difficult to admit that this happens during a man's lifetime on the performance of a more fervent act, for then the in-

37 Bannez and Contenson.

88 John of St. Thomas, the Carmelites of Salamanca, Gonct, Billuart, and others. "Scss. VI, cap. io.

THE INCREASE OF CHARITY 375 crease received would correspond only to the disposition realized by this last act. 40

Some excellent Thomists 41 consider that the just who pass through purgatory receive there the merited increase of grace on making an intense act of charity. Such acts are no longer meritorious, since the hour for merit is past, but they dispose the soul to receive the increase of charity already merited but not yet obtained for lack of proper dispositions. This would explain how the souls in purgatory grow, in a sense, in charity, their love of God intensifying as they become purified; for, although they can no longer merit, purgatory, like the passive purifications undergone in this life, makes them more capable of loving God.

According to the same theologians, when a just man dies and goes directly to heaven, the increase of charity due to his imperfect meritorious acts is accorded to him at the moment he enters into glory and is given the immediate vision of God. On entering heaven, the separated soul, although no longer able to merit, loves God to the full of its capacity and in the measure of all its past merits. 42

This opinion conforms to the general principle that the last disposition of a form or perfection is realized at the instant when the perfection itself comes into being. For example, the last disposition for sanctifying grace is an act of charity produced under God's inflowing action at the very moment of justification. 43 And in the first moment of heaven the soul makes an act of love so intense that it disposes the soul to receive the increase of charity due to all its imperfect but

40 Salmanticenses, De caritale, disp. V, dub. Ill, 2. « Those referred to in footnote 38. * 2 Summa, suppl., q.93, a.3. « la Ilac, q.113. a. 7, 8.

meritorious acts. 44 Thus participation in the beatific vision would correspond in intensity to the soul's charity and all its merits on earth. 45

Theology can say nothing further about things so high and mysterious ; it has done much to arrive at statements that have the exactness and serious probability of these.

St. Thomas' doctrine that imperfect acts of charity do not immediately obtain their merited increase of charity invites us to a greater generosity than Suarez' contrary view. To Suarez, the Christian of ten talents who is content to act for a long time as if he had but two seems less abnormal than he does to St. Thomas. According to the Angelic Doctor, perseverance in fervor demands intense acts of charity, and normally acts even more intense than those preceding them, actus non rcmissos, scd intcnsiorcs. There should be a real ascent, a growing progress, an ever-increasing development of all the infused virtues and the gifts connected with charity. We should not be surprised that normal progress is like this, that really interior and generous souls usually receive the grace of infused contemplation and the divine union resulting from it. In fact, the Holy Ghost generally moves souls so far as, through the infused virtues and the gifts, they are habitually docile to Him. We cannot see why He would, without reason, move souls to imperfect acts, for diey would then have received a high degree of infused virtues and gifts in vain. A just man who places no obstacle in the way of divine action will normally receive greater and greater vir-

44 This intense act of charity at the first instant of glory presupposes the beatific vision in the order of efficient causality and disposes the soul for it in the order of material causality. There is reciprocal action between causes of different orders. The bird carries its wings, and the wings carry the bird. St. Thomas gives us the principles governing the interaction of causes. Cf. Ia Ilae, q.113, a.8.

tues so that he may go forward courageously to God, in the light of that divine wisdom which is contemplation.

Obviously then, as the Carmelites of Salamanca observe, 46 God is more glorified by a single act of charity of ten talents than by ten acts of charity of one talent each, or again one perfect man alone is more pleasing to God than many mediocre and lukewarm followers. Quality matters more than quantity. At the first moment of her life Mary's fullness of grace surpassed all the graces of all the saints. She is the diamond of greater worth than all the rest of God's jewels put together. And the conversion of one sinner like Magdalen or Saul to great sanctity gives more glory to God than the preservation of many sinners arrested at the first stages of the spiritual life.

In developing these inferences at length in their treatise on charity, the Carmelites of Salamanca have given us new insight into the normal progress of the infused virtues and the gifts and they have added a further confirmation to the teaching to be found in Christian Perfection and Contemplation 47 on the relationship between infused contemplation and perfect charity in the normal life of sanctity.

The growth of charity during life

To the question whether we should look on charity as a line stretching into infinity or, on the contrary, as something akin to the human body in having bounds beyond which its development cannot go, St. Thomas answers 48 that we can put no stopping place to the progress of charity in this life.

48 De caritatc, disp. V, dub. Ill, vii, nos. 76, 80, 85, 93, 117. 47 Christian Pcrjection and Contemplation, chap. 3, arts. 3, 4; chap. 4, arts. 4, 5; chap. 5, art. 2.

Indeed, St. Paul's words to the Philippians reveal this truth to us: "Not as though I had already attained, or were already perfect; but I follow after, if I may by any means apprehend, wherein I am also apprehended by Christ Jesus." 49 And in the Apocalypse more advanced souls are told: "He that is just, let him be justified still." 60 In this life no one dares say: "Now I love God enough." To set limits to love would mean leaving the way that leads to God or, at least, stopping on the way before the journey's end.

Theological reasoning explains this truth by considering the possible ways in which charity might be limited and by rejecting them all. 51 In itself charity finds no limiting principle, for it is a participation in uncreated and infinite charity, just as sanctifying grace is a participation in the divine nature. In God who gives it, charity finds noUiing to set bounds to it, for God has infinite power and can always increase our charity. Even the finiteness of our souls which receive charity places no limitations on its growth, since charity develops our capacity for more charity; 52 by love the spiritual heart is enlarged, as it were, that it may hold more love. "I have run the way of Thy commandments, when Thou didst enlarge my heart." 83 "Our mouth is open to you, O ye Corinthians; our heart is enlarged," says St. Paul. "You are not straitened in us; but in your own bowels you are straitened.

" Ibid.: "Whenever charity increases, there is a corresponding increased ability to receive a further increase." Ibid., ad 211m: "The capacity of the rational creature is increased by charity, because the heart is enlarged thereby, according to II Cor. 6: 2: "Our heart is enlarged': so that it still remains capable of receiving a further increase."

THE INCREASE OF CHARITY 379 But having the same recompense (I speak as to my children), be you also enlarged." 84

Even if we were to grow continually in charity, none of us could ever overtake Mary, the mother of God, for by God's predestination the initial fullness of graces she received at the moment of her immaculate conception surpassed even then the graces of all the saints, and it never stopped growing during her whole life. There is all the more reason why our charity could never equal Christ's because, from the first moment of His conception, He had an absolute fullness of charity proportionate to the uncreated grace uniting His sacred soul to the person of the Word. 88

A just man cannot attain in this life to the degree of charity he will have at home with God in heaven, for on entering into glory all will receive a last increase of the virtue. But, in line with what has just been said, it certainly seems, as many Thomists teach, that a great saint, even while living, may have a degree of charity equal or superior to that possessed in heaven by the soul of an infant who died immediately after baptism. We can hardly doubt this in the case of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or even of St. Paul and St. John.

Nevertheless in heaven charity is more perfect than it is on earth from two points of view: first, it can never be lost, for the beatific vision of God's infinite goodness makes sin impossible; secondly, it is continually and completely occupied with God, suffering no interruptions from sleep and the other necessities of life on earth. All these considerations lead us to ask whether men can

have perfect charity in this life. St. Thomas answers 58 by making two distinctions. We cannot now or ever love God as much as He deserves to be loved. Our return of love to His infinite lovableness must be finite. God alone, by His uncreated charity, can give Himself a love commensurate with His own lovableness. Further, in this life our charity cannot always be concerned with God; that is possible only in heaven.

However, our charity can be perfect in this world by avoiding not only everything contrary to it (mortal sin) but whatever would, of its nature, slow its ascent to God. Those who have the true spirit of the evangelical counsels and practice more and more perfecdy the first commandment of divine love do love God perfectly in this life.

On the way of perfection, beginners are concerned principally with their battle against sin, proficients practice the virtues and grow in love of God and of neighbor, and the perfect seek above all to act only out of love of God, to cleave to Him, to enjoy Him and, like St. Paul, they desire to do so that they may die with Christ. 57

Footnotes

1. Summa, Ila Ilae, q.24, a. 4-10. ↩